John gorge dickson



(No Model.)

J. G. DIOKSON. SOLE PROTECTOR FOR BOOTS 0R SHOES. No. 409,938. Patented Aug. 2'7, 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT anion.

JOHN GORGE DIOKSON, OF BEAVER FALLS, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF T\VO-T1IIRDS TO JOHN MCDONALD AND ALLEN E. MODONALD, OF

SAME PLACE.

SOLE-PROTECTOR FOR BOOTS OR SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 409,938, dated August 27, 1889.

Application filed March 13, 1889. $erial No. 308,097. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN Gonen D1cKsoN, of Beaver Falls, in the county of Beaver and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new 5 an d useful Improvement in Sole-Protectors for Boots or Shoes, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to metal sole-covering plates for boots or shoes generally such, for instance, as are used by workmen engaged in rolling mills and other places where the feet are exposed to highly-heated or other surfaces, which destroy the leather of the sole of the boot or shoe if coming directly in contact therewith. WVhen these protecting-plates are made all in onepiece, their rigidity restricts the foot from bending, and they subject the wearer of boots or shoes so protected to great inconvenience and sore feet. To obviate this said plates have been made fieXible-that is, of an articulated con struction, with the sections grouped edge to edge and joined together by springs or flexible connections-thereby contributing ease to the foot of the wearer, which is mainly the object of my invention; but this I attain in a different manner; and my invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter fully described and 0 claimed. I

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

3 5 Figure 1 represents an under face view of my improved boot or shoe protecting plate as adapted for the right foot, with the sections of which it is composed hinged together; Fig. 2, an upper or inside View of said plate;

Fig. 3, a longitudinal section, upon the line at a: in Fig. 1, of the plate as applied to a boot or shoe, shown only in part; and Fig. A is an inside face view of certain of the plate-sections, one of which is only shown in part, as

the same appear when they are detached or before they are hinged together and secured upon the sole of the shoe.

While my improved metal sole-protecting plate may be made in any number of independent sections hinged together transversely of the, entire plate, three of such plate-sections A B C will ordinarily suffice. These sections are made to conform in shape to the portions of the sole 1) of the shoe D they are designed to cover, and have a series of apertures c to give increased lightness to them; also a series of other apertures d for the ,nails, screws, or other fastenings which unite them with the sole. Said plate-sections are likewise studded on their outer face with a series of projections e, in imitation of hobnail heads, to give the whole plate better grip or hold on the ground.

To give an articulated construction to the entire plate, which will permit of the bend ing of the foot in walking, said plates are hinged together at their approximately meeting edges, which are beveled awayin a backward and downward direction, as shown at f, to provide for the free working of the platesections where hinged together, due to the bending of the foot. Thus the plate-;sectio11s B and O are each made with hinge-lugs g 011 their advance edges, provided with end pintles or pins 72, preferably made integral with the lugs. These lugs g fit within recesses 1', made in the rear edges of the plates A and B, and the pintles It drop into or sit within cavi ties s at the ends of the recesses 'L' on the inside or upper surface of the plate-sections A So B. In this way the platesections may be readily hinged together without any special fitting, and when secured by the nails or screws which unite them with the sole the hinged connections will be prevented from coming apart, while the most perfect freedom of motion will be secured for the articulated plate to conform to the motion or bending of the foot.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A metal sole-protector shaped to cover the entire sole and formed in sections having their adjacent edges provided with interlocking recesses and projections t g, the projections having pintles h h, and the opposing section having pintle recesses s s on its upper face at opposite sides of the recesses 2', substantially as set forth. 10o

2. A metal sole-protector shaped to cover ole-recesses s s in the upper sides of the seethe entire sole and formed in three sections tions A B, at opposite sides of the recesses A B 0, provided with projections e on their 2 17, substantially as set forth.

lower faces, the adjacent edges of the three JOHN GORGE DICKSON. 5 plates or sections being provided with re- Vitnesses:

cesses i and projections g, beveled as at f, the A. E. MCDONALD,

pintles h 71 on said projections, and'the pin- G. L. EBERHART. 

